Support thread for speech and language delay.......

[jaybirdsinginginthedeadofnight]

I know this has been done before on here, but I couldn't find anything recent and am sure there is someone out there going through similar worries to us. So if you want to share your experiences/worries come join me

DD turns 2 in 2 weeks and has no words, not one! She babbles constantly and has added new 'c' 's' and 'th' sounds to her babbling in the last week. Her understanding seems good and she has her own way of letting us know what she wants (point & whinge a lot). She will have her 2 year assessment next week, I intend on broaching the subject of SALT.

I am sooooo anxious about all of this. DD's cousin is 6months older, and as her speech has developed well she seems leaps and bounds ahead of DD

skuntoo, How did you teach the signs ? Glad I am not the only one worried about nursery.

Jelly, Honestly I don't know how much she understands. Sometimes I think she just chosing to not talk and understands everything. Other times she seems to just ignore us completely or guess what we are saying to her...it is very fustrating.

Jay Crossed post with your post.

I wouldn't say she has behavioural difficulties..I think she is just a typical toddler.

The Comm Paed was concerned about her ignoring her name when she was called. Playing alongside not with her assistant. Using my hand as a tool when she wants something. Lack of speech or enough speech, as she does say some words.

Personally I don't think she wants to communicate further at the moment. She gets drinks, snacks, stories and cuddles at regular intervals, she doesn't need to ask for anything.

DD3 rarely tries to talk...when we encourage her to say something, she just quietly looks at us thinking we are mad! with no attempt to say the sound.

Also some words she repeats once, so we know she can physically say them but they are never used again.

babieseverywhere your DD sounds a lot like mine. Regards playing alongside, isn't that what they all do at that age? DD would've used my hand too, the odd time still would as part of a game like if she's putting cars (and anything else she can find) down the ramp of her garage she'll use my hand to get her the next car instead of lifting it herself, but she'll happily play away on her own if I'm busy. I just see it as her wanting me involved in her game. But it was things like that and a few others that meant she too failed her 2 yr assessment. But honestly 6-7 months has made a world of difference she is like a different child and not waving any of those red flags any longer

My DD (2.3 years) is currently waiting on a SALT appt. I made the initial referral to GP in July (one month before her 2nd bday) because I was concerned about her lack of babbling or speech.

They said a SALT appt would happen in Nov, but I'm currently still none the wiser and she hasn't added any new words since July.

She says 10 words, seems to have perfect hearing, understands everything we say and more!

My DS was always a great talker from an early age, so I was shocked when DD didn't follow the same pattern.

Hiya. DS speech issues where solely around the fact that he was unable to make the sounds, , meaning his speech was hard to understand as he wasn't using the right sounds or missing them out completely, so all of our experience is based around articulation really. His understanding was good so he only needed to work on articulation.

Some great ideas in jay's post. I agree with modelling back and repetition of key words. Keep it simple too. Also a sort of commentary on what you are doing, ensuring a pause for their input (even if they don't give any)! Kind of like 'oh you are playing with the doll, look the doll has a hat on' etc, etc!

Scrap book is a good idea too. By focussing on the family to start with you will be using words/names she is likely to need more often.

As said before, you are probably doing everything you should be doing so just carrying on with that.

roar I was similar to you in that my first child was an early talker and had a great vocabulary, so when DS didn't (and obviously having done the same thing with both) it was a bit of a shock.

I was knew there was something not quite right for a long time. I took him to a speech drop on when he was 21 months as he wasn't babbling therapist suggested Makaton and i rang the Makaton Charity and paid to do a 2 day course that was in the Oct we didn't get put on a course until the Feb. The course was for 4 wks and was to help parents help their children it was a waste of time for me as I was already doing what they suggested. But u wouldn't get any more help until u completed the course. We were reassessed and they decided we needed individual therapy was put on another waiting list and was seen this Sep. Lucky we saw the same therapist that we saw in drop in and she is fantastic she has helped us with signing visited his nursery and helped them. The therapist gave us all the tools we need like sound cards and more signs but alot of work we do at home. Once I did the Makaton course I went home and taught everyone we found meal times especially good for us to practise as we all signed together and it's all about repetition. He knows about 40 signs now hard work but it's paid off and he's just started to hum twinkle twinkle little star hooray
He has other stuff going on with him but we are making progress it is just very slow Xxx

Thanks for your posts.

We have started watching something special together Of course her being child number four means I have seen a lot of these shows already !

Not heard anything further from SALT or official report from audiology.

New words dankou for thankyou said twice but not again since.

Ower for flower said four times within five minutes but not again since.

rong meaning turn the TV around
...took me a while to figure that one out !

More words on her brain though.